The Sims Bustin' Out features an all-new neighborhood with over a dozen new unlockable locations and a cast of over 40 new zany characters to socialize with. Players will purchase a car or scooter in order to get out of the house and head to the Gym to work out with exercise fanatic Goldie Toane or to Club Rubb to rave with club owner Bing Bling. Players will be able to crash parties, create havoc, or just drive their neighbors crazy! Read more for some new screens & ingame trailer...

Konami is rolling out yet another demo, this time for their imminent cel-shaded action game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This demo allows you to play as Leonardo (thanks Shacknews). Read more for download links ...

Konami has released a demo for Extreme FX's upcoming third-person action game Apocalyptica. This demo features the first level, playable in a choice of two characters. Read more for download links ...

DreamCatcher Games today announced that it has shipped Curse: The Eye of Isis on PC in North America. Curse: The Eye of Isis centers on Darien Dane and his assistant, Victoria Sutton as they investigate the disappearance of an ancient sacred Egyptian statue. Protected by an evil curse, the statue causes madness (or violent death) to those who come in contact with it. Darien must battle hordes of zombies and evil mummies to find this statue and return it to its pyramid home before total carnage ensues.

Empire Interactive has issued a demo for Deep Red Games' freshly released 3D business/management strategy game Vega$: Make It Big! The demo offers two levels from the full game, called Welcome to the Strip (tutorial level) and King of the Hill (2nd level). Read more for download links ...

Graphic Simulations has released a demo for their modern combat flight sim F/A-18 Operation Iraqi Freedom. This demo features one playable mission along with the same five minute in-game replay demonstration as in the earlier rolling demo (thanks 3DGamers). Read more for download links ...

Highway to the Reich is based on the critically acclaimed Airborne Assault engine and covers the entire Market Garden operation, from the three separate landing zones to the drive by XXX Corps to unify them all before the German counterattack could succeed. The Airborne Assault game engine revolutionizes wargaming. This design allows the player to choose how much to delegate to subordinates and what to handle personally, without the usual concern involved with leaving formations in the computer's hands. Realistic command delays and supply procedures are integrated with meticulous order of battle and equipment research to allow the player to experience combat and command challenges that are remarkably true to history.

Play the Greatest Story Ever Written . . . The quest to destroy the One Ring continues in the first real-time strategy game based on The Lord of the Rings saga. Massive battles erupt as the peoples of Middle-earth fight for control of Tolkien’s World. Gamers can play as the forces of good and valiantly fight for the One Ring’s destruction or assume command of the forces of evil to claim control over Middle-earth forever. Read more for some new screens ...

Tons of surprises await you! Have fun with everyone's favourite characters as well as some new ones making their debut in this classic game. Mario Party 5 has many new game boards, more than 60 new mini-games, new playable characters, an expanded one-player mode and, of course, the multi-player madness that made it famous in the first place. This sequel extends Mario Party's reign as the king of the party game! Read more for a batch of new screens ...

Electronic Arts and LEGO Interactive today announced that Bionicle, a fast-paced action adventure platform title based on one of the LEGO Company’s most successful toy lines of recent years, is now available for the PS2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube. The PC-CD version of the game is scheduled for release on October 28, and will include special features that deliver a more life-like experience to consumers with PCs based on the Intel Pentium4 Processor with HT Technology.

iGames Publishing today announced that this Halloween’s most anticipated horror game, Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi, has shipped to retail stores nationwide. Based on the classic film, Nosferatu combines first-person shooter action with shocking horror elements in a gothic castle setting ridden with deadly, nightmarish vampires. Nosferatu has an MSRP of $29.99 and has been rated M for Mature.

Ubisoft is committed to producing quality games for its customers and fans. We have listened to our community and the concerns they have voiced about the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 franchise on the PC. In keeping with our dedication to create excellent products, the mission pack for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword, will now be releasing in early 2004. This later release date will allow for us to develop the top quality game we know our fans have come to expect from Ubisoft.

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. today announced that its next-generation Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game Lords of EverQuest has entered the exclusive closed beta stage of development with 500 fortunate testers getting the first hands-on time with the game. Over the course of beta, up to 15,000 testers will be allowed into the beta program to test and help with balancing the online multiplayer gameplay. Lords of EverQuest is expected to ship to U.S. and Canadian retail stores this fall and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.

Bigben Interactive is please to announce it is to publish JoWooD Productions' comedy gameshow title, Neighbours From Hell 2 on the PC. Following the phenomenal success of "Neighbours from Hell", the reality TV show videogame. Bigben Interactive is proud to announce the second series! The show's star, Woody, drove his mean-spirited neighbour to distraction during the first series. To escape the mischievous Woody the long-suffering neighbour has decided to take his family away for a well earned break. Little does he know that Woody's antics are about to follow him on his vacation.

CDV Software Entertainment has announced that "No Man's Land" for the PC is now available in retail stores. Set in the rugged, unclaimed expanse of North America from 1600 to 1900, "No Man's Land" is a historical real-time strategy game that is sure to engender a revolutionary spirit among all who play it.

OK, this weekend sucked plain and simple... After we had successfully upgraded the hardware and started a little tweaking, the server locked up and our remote reboot switch shut down the machine, but did not bring it back online due to a rookie mistake! Either way, we apologize for the downtime. All is tested and working properly now so we will be on our way shortly to update & play catch up! The site should be faster & better so stay tuned for the goodies (as soon as I return home).

Our friends over at Homelan dug up some info from the newest print issue of Game Informer magazine which reveals and gives the first details for Dead To Rights II. While the PC version of Dead To Rights is expected later this year, this new article already sports a number of screenshots from the sequel, details about the new graphics engine, gameplay improvements (including better gunplay, melee combat with swords and improved hand-to-hand combat). Dead To Rights II will feature new gameplay modes like Arcade mode (run through the game and collect points for special moves) and Challenge mode (play special levels to accomplish a specific goal or achievement). The game will be released for the PS2/Xbox in fall 2004, no GameCube or PC version has been announced yet.

As you may have noticed ( judging from the many emails! :) the site was down for part of the day. This was due to performing maintenance on the Worthplaying web box as well as one of the fileservers. Weekend is usually slower in news & updates so we took the time to install some new (and much faster) hardware as well as adding more hd space to one of the file servers. Upgrades never go as smooth as one would like so it all took a bit longer than we had hoped for. Either way, things should run a lot faster so it was worth the sweat. Njoy!

Namco's new R: Racing Evolution is being created by the same team that developed the critically-acclaimed Ridge Racer and MotoGP franchises. The game will be available on all three console platforms and will ship in Q4 2003. Featuring licensed cars, 11 real-world and fantasy tracks, and eight different race types. Some new screens raced in so read more to check them out!

GODZ Team has released the 'Gold' version of their Unreal Tournament 2003 modification. GODZ for UT2k3 features incredible battles amongst genetically engineered, supernatural warriors built by rival planets to compete in a Universal-Wide Tournament. This v1.4 gold version features 2 new maps, enhanced Bot AI and a tons of bug fixes & new features (thanks Vajuras). Read more for details and download links ...

Arx Fatalis is a first-person RPG, which plunges players into an amazingly complex fantasy-world of trolls, goblins and ‘Snake-women’. Creating weapons, solving puzzles and completing amazing quests, gamers become heroes as they battle in an evil world. Players will also need to master a unique real-time magic system to cast more than 50 different spells based on 20 different runes. Read more to check a 100 or so new screens ...

Universal Combat brings the greatest components of war together in a single game. Conceived in late 2001 as Battlecruiser Generations, the fifth in the Battlecruiser series, the game has grown into much more than a massive space simulation. Universal Combat is due to be distributed by Mindscape in the UK in November 2003. Unfortunately due to time constraints and a looming Gold date, plans for the demo have been put on hold. Once the game goes Gold this Thanksgiving holidays, work will resume on the demo. Expect it around the end of November. In the meantime, check the new screens ..

Do you find that you’re missing that arcade feeling when you’re swinging your battle-axe in SOULCALIBUR II? Now you can bring the full arcade experience home and pummel your enemies in style with the official SOULCALIBUR II Universal Arcade Stick. Nuby Technologies was so kind to send us a sample and our resident Soul Calibur II fanatic was all over it like a cheap suit ...

The President of the United States of America has been assassinated. You wake up on a desolate strip of New England beach. The near-fatal impact of a bullet has left your head pounding, and your memory erased. What's more, the number "XIII" has been mysteriously tattooed on your chest, while your pocket holds a key to a New York City bank box. Head swimming in amnesia, you struggle to your feet only to encounter more assailants intent on finishing the job. To your shock, you handle the hitmen with the killing skills of a professional - before heading to the bank in search of any shred of information about your lost identity and your involvement in the President's murder. What lies ahead is a deadly quest not only into your shadowy past, but America's darkest corridors of power.

Massive is looking for a skilled artist to help produce marketing material for Ground Control 2. The art team is busy working on the game so they now need a fast-working expert, freelance 2D artist to help create posters, POS material, box art etc for their baby. If you are a world-class artist, don't hesitate to mail jobs@massive.se with a link to your portfolio.